How to write a carousel hook that stops the scroll

A carousel is only as good as its first slide. Nobody swipes to slide two of a post they did not stop for. The hook has one job: make the right person pause long enough to want the next slide.

What a good hook does

A hook that works does three things at once, in very few words.

• It names the reader. The person it is for should recognise themselves in it.
• It makes a promise. An answer, a fix, a list, a story with a turn in it.
• It leaves something open. The rest of the carousel is where the promise is kept, so the hook should not give it all away.

If your first slide does those three things, the design only has to stay out of its way.

Seven hooks that work

1. Ask the question they already ask themselves

Use the exact words your customers use, not your industry's. A clinic might open with "Hiding your smile in photos?" because that is what a patient actually feels, not "Cosmetic dentistry options explained".

2. Name the mistake

People stop for a mistake they might be making. "You are cleaning your aligners wrong" or "Three things that make a haircut grow out badly". Make sure the carousel shows the fix, not just the mistake.

3. Promise a number

"4 daily habits for clear aligners" tells the reader exactly what they will get and how long it will take. Keep the number honest: if you have three good points, do not stretch them to five.

4. Bust a myth

"Myth: missing teeth are just cosmetic" works because it challenges something the reader believes. The slides that follow need to explain why it is wrong and what is true instead.

5. Show the before

Start where your customer is now. "Before: postponing care around unpredictable rosters" puts the reader in the picture first, and the carousel moves them to the after.

6. Start the story in the middle

A story that opens with a moment pulls harder than one that opens with background. "She stopped laughing in meetings and did not know why" is a better first slide than "Meet our patient, Maya".

7. Put a cost on waiting

Some posts are about acting sooner. "Small chips become big repairs" says what it costs to put something off, without exaggerating it.

Rules that keep a hook honest

• Few words. Aim for under ten on the first slide. It has to read at the size of a thumbnail.
• One idea. A hook that tries to say two things says neither.
• Pay it off. If the hook promises four habits, slide two should start delivering them. A hook the carousel cannot keep costs you trust.
• Match the rest. The hook slide should look like the slides after it, in your colours and your type, so the post reads as one piece.
• Skip the shouting. Capital letters and exclamation marks do not make a hook stronger. A sharper idea does.

How to check yours

Shrink the slide to the size it shows in a feed and look at it for one second. Can you read it? Would your customer know it is for them? If you would not stop for it, they will not either. Write two or three versions and keep the one that is most specific.

Each hook also belongs to a shape. A question hook leads well into a problem and its fix, a myth hook into a myth and the truth, a number into a list. The six story shapes covers which to use when.

Where CONRA fits

CONRA writes the hook as part of the whole carousel. Each theme gets a story shape, and the first slide is written to open that shape, in your tone, for your customers. You read every word before any image is drawn and can rewrite the hook yourself. Planning and writing cost no credits, so you can try a different angle as many times as you like, and planning the month in one sitting shows how the rest of the routine fits around it.